50 cal deer projectiles

Eastern buffalo, black bear and elk were almost wiped out by ball shooting muzzleloader. And many of the rifles were .45-50 range.
plains rifles would a bit bigger, .54 range but that wasn’t until later in the MM and Oregon trail time. Most of the rifles in rendezvous-time seem closer to .50.

52 seems to have been very common in the western mountains.

Sidney Smith said:

The question here then is; why was the Elk shot in the shoulder, and not in its heart lung area? If shot in the latter, my guess is that elk probably would have gone down.

Your scenario is a text book case of improper shot placement. That.50 was capable of taking that elk, but obviously the shooter wasn't.

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That scenario is very unlikely!

Last December, .50 patched roundball, with 90 FFFg took this Bull Elk at 15 yards. Traditions St. Louis Hawken. Ball went through shoulder and punctured chest cavity. He went down where he stood. Flattened ball on inside of opposite rib-cage.

Thats a nice elk, you did a nice stalk on him or was in the right place. My hunting buddy's dad killed one with a 30-30 at the same range.
At 100 yards I can see missing the lungs and hitting the shoulder, and the ball may not go thru at that range. But a conical will have many more Ft lbs at 100 than a prb.

Deer hit in the right spot aren't hard to kill, hit wrong a rabbit is hard to stop!!

Ummm.....More of an interception. Over the course of 2 days I got within 20yds-75yds stalking in on him, on 5 separate occasions, but I always spooked him. I like hunting in deep snow, I can keep tracking them, and when I do spook them they don't run as far or as fast as they do in the summer. When I had caught up to him the 5th time, I spooked him up in some thick timber, and he took off running straight down a sheer ridge with a big cliff off of the other side. I took off parallel to him running through the thick timber. I could see him out on the rocky spine about 40yds off trying to look for a way to escape over the cliff, but it continued along the ridge for several hundred yards. I was keeping up with him, but concealed by timber. Finally, he got cliffed out, and had to turn into the timber. I ran right to where he was headed, and he ran right to me; I didn't even have time to use my set trigger. I barely got my feet stopped before I shot. This was my first elk with a muzzleloader, and I have got a couple previous with a 30-06. All my elk have been shot within 30yds. I'm hooked and hoping I'll draw a winter tag again this year. I think winter elk hunting in Idaho is perfect for close range and fast action.

My old sarge always said, "I'd rather be lucky than good"...sometimes it pays to be both !!

I have only hunted with my CVA Bobcat caplock .50. I would load up a Hornady Great Plains all lead hollowpoint, 385 grains, but it was so hard to load I carried patched round balls for reloads.

I never shot anything with it.

A friend used the same bullet to kill a whitetail, but a spine hit. His gun did not stabilize the bullet well at all, I think his twist was closer to 1:66 while my Bobcat was 1:48. Mine was very accurate with both patched round ball and the big Great Plains bullets.

I was on a controlled hunt where a guy shot through-and-through a fawn* with .50 patched round ball. (On this controlled hunt, fawns were legal to take).

I've conducted most of my sidelock deer hunting with 50 caliber 355 grain T/C Maxihunter conical bullets that I cast with pure lead. With 65 grains of 3FFFg power they shot 1,180 fps (chronied), printed 2' high at 50 yards and dead on at 100 yards. This was out of the 1/48" twist from T/C rifles (Renegade and Hawkin). They did just fine on deer size game.
The past 5 years I've delved into PRB hunting. Still using 65 grains of FFFg powder with half the weight projectile. I've taken 3 deer with this combination, one at 30 yards, busted through both scapluas at the thin part. A quick coup de grac made quick work of that large doe. One right at 100 yards. The wind will blow a PBR off more than a conical, in my experience, and because I did not account for that the ball hit the front leg bone instead of the heart/lungs I was aiming at. She ran off with a useless leg and died in the woods a couple hundred yards from the hit site. No exit, but the leg bone shattered sending bone and lead shrapnel into the lungs, effectively killing that deer. No blood trail was on the skiff of snow to follow, though. The third was on a buck I convinced to stop to look back. A spine shot nearly 100 yards dropped him straight down. I shot quickly and a bit high off hand at last light.
Will they work, yes. You will need to be mindful that it isn't as large a chunk of lead than the conicals are, though. I will continue using PRB's, but realize that they aren't the same as the conical bullets.

ive taken 2 antelope each at 150 yards with a 50 cal round ball rifle. the load was 100 grains of powder. a 495 round ball and a linen cloth patch cut off at the muzzle. dropped them like a rock. the twist was 1/60 which is perfect for accurate shooting at that distance and with that load of powder.

What do you want from the gun, what do you want from your experience.
Since I was eighteen I have only taken game with round ball. Ive only used traditional Ml. Mostly I’ve only used flint lock.
We have everything from atl-atl to laser sighted guns with built in computer chips that can be told ‘go get me a deer, I’ll be in the tent when your finished”.
A round ball will put meat on the table, it has for seven centuries. Conicals will put meat on the table for two centuries. All manner of breechloaders from Sharps to ARs will put meat on the table. So will the most modern archery tackle, or the most primitive.
What one choses to hunt with is personal and the most important thing is to be comfortable with the means.
Make sure you can hit it, make sure of the range. Make sure you know your gun, an ml will not let you down if you respect it, ball or conical.

Using a Traditions Deerhunter .50 that I owned for 20 years I took numerous deer with one shot firing a prb. I'd have prefered just using my .45 but I like to rotate the rifles during deer season. I killed two deer at 100 yards with two different .50s and one at 75 yards with a .45. I like the little Deerhunter.

im a conical type guy, however a roundball will getb the job done ive killed eating size pigs up to 125 lbs with a .490 rb and their hide is much tougher to penetrate. which ever gives you the best accuracy. I like that 370 gr maxi

I use a .54 for muley, bear, and elk. It does a great job. The .50 will too but Colorado has got stupid and says a .50 is too small for elk and a .54 is the minimum.

For just deer, A PRB is all you need.

With my .50 a round ball has always worked just fine. Out to a hundred yards shoot them in the ribs and the ball will go clear through!!!